CALGARY — Put away the pitchforks for Ryan Warsofsky.
On Thursday, the San Jose Sharks head coach began overtime against the Edmonton Oilers with what appeared to be an unusual trio, center Alex Wennberg, and defensemen Mario Ferraro and Timothy Liljegren.
Except, if you look at how teams have started OT this season against the Oilers’ super trio of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard, it really wasn’t that unusual.
Consider, first, that there really isn’t a trio in the NHL like McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard to start overtime. In McDavid and Draisaitl, that’s two top-10, arguably top-five players in the league, both who happen to be centers. Bouchard is a point-per-game defenseman.
Look at how head coaches around the NHL have tried to solve the McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard problem to begin OT this season:
TEAMDATEFORWARDFORWARDDEFENSEDEFENSENOTES
San Jose Sharks1/29/26WennbergFerraro LiljegrenOTL
Washington Capitals1/24/26StromeDowdChychrunOTL
Nashville Predators1/13/26O’ReillyJosiWilsbyOTW
Los Angeles Kings1/10/26ByfieldLaferriereDoughtySOW
Buffalo Sabres12/9/25McLeodTuchDahlinOTW
Tampa Bay Lightning11/20/25CirelliHagelMoserOTW
Carolina Hurricanes11/15/25StaalGostisbehereWalkerOTL
Philadelphia Flyers11/12/25CouturierKonecnySanheimOTL
Columbus Blue Jackets11/10/25MonahanMarchenkoWerenskiOTL
Dallas Stars11/4/25SteelHeiskanenLindellSOW
Chicago Blackhawks11/1/25BedardBurakovskyVlasicOTL
New York Rangers10/30/25MillerBorgenGavrikovOTW
Vancouver Canucks10/26/25PetterssonDeBruskHronekOTW
Ottawa Senators10/21/25PintoStutzleSandersonOTL
Calgary Flames10/8/25BacklundSharangovichAnderssonSOW: CGY started OT on PP
What stands out? Nobody really knows what to do against the arguably best OT trio in the NHL.
And Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch knows it, starting this trio in every single OT possible. It was also who he went to immediately on opening night, after a Calgary 4-on-3 power play to begin overtime ended.
“I’ve seen multiple different teams start two defenders and a forward,” Sports 1440’s Jason Gregor, who’s watched the Oilers for decades, said. “Some have even used a more defensive-minded forward.”
Like the San Jose Sharks, teams have avoided matching up their best player initially against McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard, hoping to give their best a more advantageous match-up later in overtime against the rest of the Oilers. That’s what Warsofsky was hoping to do for Macklin Celebrini.
The Los Angeles Kings kept their most dangerous offensive forwards, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe, off the ice to begin overtime in January. Same with the Washington Capitals, who withheld Tom Wilson and Alex Ovechkin. These are just a couple examples.
To that point, dropping the puck with a more defensively-oriented center and two defensemen has been a common OT plan: The Nashville Predators with Ryan O’Reilly, the Carolina Hurricanes with Jordan Staal, and the Dallas Stars with Sam Steel are examples of that. This also reserves their top offensive weapons for better match-ups.
This lines up with how the San Jose Sharks kicked off with Wennberg and two defenseman.
“We wanted to try to shut down McDavid and Draisaitl. [Our] guys were doing a pretty good job all night,” Warsofsky said. “We get the puck and we get what we want and we turn it over.”
Warsofsky is referring to an unforced Liljegren turnover that kept Celebrini off the ice. Zach Hyman would score, and the Sharks lost 4-3 in OT.
The #SJSharks shouldn’t have let this game even get to overtime, but this series from Liljegren is b-a-d — BAD.
The turnover at 4:20 is inexcusable, you had the time and space to get your superstar on the ice, but instead Oilers take full advantage of sloppy hockey. pic.twitter.com/AXizOk2ZeB
— SnipeCity420 (@SnipeCity420) January 30, 2026
There are, of course, teams who have tried their best to go best-on-best against McDavid and company: The Philadelphia Flyers with Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim and the Chicago Blackhawks with Connor Bedard and Alex Vlasic are…attempts.
But what all this tells you?
First, and once again, head coaches around the league don’t know how to handle McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard.
The second thing, the San Jose Sharks don’t have a No. 1 defenseman a la Roman Josi or Zach Werenski or Rasmus Dahlin for a truly competitive best-on-best match-up with the Oilers superstar trio. So Warsofsky has to work with what he’s got to work with.
In this case, it was Ferraro and Liljegren, who actually appeared to do relatively well against McDavid at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick, on Thursday: Ferraro was the most-used Shark against McDavid at 10:13, followed by Liljegren at 8:52. Both, on the ice, outscored and outshot McDavid. Dmitry Orlov, San Jose’s ostensible No. 1 blueliner, saw 3:55 at 5-on-5 against McDavid. So this might explain Ferraro over say Orlov.
Of course, there’s always an argument to start OT with Celebrini, no matter what. He’s in the top-5, top-10 player conversation, and the San Jose Sharks are tied with Montreal Canadiens for an NHL-best nine overtime wins this season, fueled mostly by Celebrini.
But it’s also fair to recognize Warsofsky’s dilemma: The McDavid-Draisaitl-Bouchard trio presents a special match-up problem, not just for the Sharks, but for the entire league.
His solution was reasonable, it just didn’t work.